560. When those who were with me saw horses they said that many such were to be found with them, but they are in the forests; and although they do no harm they were very much afraid of them, indeed, a certain fear of them is implanted. The latent cause of this fear is that horses represent the sciences, and that the sciences of particulars, or of the senses, and consequently of the body, of self, and of the world, were what had seduced the Most Ancient Church, and hence caused the fall. The tree of knowledge which seduced them has a like signification. In these things lies hidden the reason for their fear of horses. Hence it comes about that they ought not to learn the sciences, for thus their understanding is obscured and blinded, and so the loves of self and the world, which thence derive their origin, begin to have dominion, reigning in darkness.